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vaccines widely used by humans today…are what we'd call "perfect" vaccines. But new research suggests that "imperfect" or "leaky" vaccines -- ones that don't make their hosts totally immune to the disease...might have a surprising downside…this so-called leakiness only exists in vaccines used to treat farm animals….researchers warn that as humankind tackles bigger, badder diseases,…. potential danger of leaky vaccines..

Until CMS publishes...regulations, all providers and developers can do is hold tight – but the clock keeps ticking...in a real bind....anxiously waiting for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to release final rule changes to meaningful use regulations...all hospitals and eligible providers would be able to attest to 90 consecutive days of meaningful use for 2015 only, instead of an entire year.

CMS has said it will not deny or audit claims just for specificity for one year after implementation of ICD-10—as long as the code is from the appropriate family of ICD-10 codes. But it has not defined what a family of codes is… To get AMA to cease and desist its defiance, CMS gave AMA something it wanted: no penalties for some coding errors...

federal government could save anywhere between $15.2 billion and $16 billion annually if it negotiated Medicare Part D prescription prices with drug makers, … the high levels of deductibles and out-of-pocket copayments are the main reason why so many Americans cannot afford to fill their prescriptions…federal government cannot directly negotiate rebates due to the non-interference clause,…but insurers can.

Companies fail to report roughly one in 10 serious and unexpected medication side effects to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within a 15-day window specified by federal regulations to protect patient safety…Drug manufacturers are also less likely to disclose serious adverse events within this window when patient deaths are involved than when complications aren’t fatal,…

federal judge says…a clinic chief (Tonya Rushing) connected to the largest medical office hepatitis C outbreak in Nevada history will pay $50,000 in restitution to overbilled insurers and companies, not $2.2 million prosecutors sought… U.S. Attorney…the $50,000 was intended to be credited toward a final amount yet to be determined.

Eli Lilly failed…to persuade…federal court to dismiss a suit against it by a woman claiming that taking...Prozac during her pregnancy caused her son to be born with… Tetralogy of Fallot…

FIVE drug store proprietors, whose shops were closed for operating illegally in Ndola,...Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority… arrested and charged after they were found operating their drug stores illegally… imprisoned to two months

New York State Attorney General…announced that a Walgreens-owned pharmacy (Trinity Homecare) must repay $22.4 million to the state’s Medicaid program for filing false billings...

9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...has ruled that Washington can require pharmacies to deliver medications such as Plan B even if owners have a religious objection.